Top 5 SEO Design Tips
Tip # 1 Graphic Abuse
So, you have a beautiful site with lots of great pictures and flash elements – but no one can find your site. All of your navigation menus are based on images that look so good - but your website statistics show that the search engines never go past your home page.
Don’t over do use of images and flash elements. A little goes a long way. Remember: search engines cannot read graphics or Flash text! You must incorporate text based content and links that a search engine can follow to find all of your pages and content.
If your site design and navigation is based on flash or graphics, create a static text and HTML Site Map that contains links to every page on your site. The link to the Site Map should appear on each page in text link format.
Tip # 2 Meta What?
There is a section (hidden from the viewer) on every web page that provides information about your site to the search engines. This section in located in the head of the HTML page and contains Meta tags.
The <Title> Meta tag is the most important of all. This is the text that appears at the top of your browser window. The Title tag should contain the name of the site and the page and a few select keywords. This tag usually shows up in the results of a search on a search engine.
The <Description> Meta tag is also very important. This is a small paragraph that should describe the site or page and the content found on that page. It should be in proper sentences and be ‘keyword’ rich. Be very specific and do not use marketing phrases like ‘best widget ever’ or ‘free offer’. Abusing this meta tag can get you banned from search engines like Google. This tag usually shows up in the results of a search on a search engine.
The <Keyword> Meta tag is not used as much as it once was by the search engines because it was abused so much by marketers. We still include a list of 10-20 specific keywords that you think a potential customer would use to locate your type of business or product. Remember to include location keywords like your city and state. The keywords in this tag should appear in the text on the webpage. This tag does not appear in searches on search engines.
Tip # 3 Tricky tricks will get you banned.
You may be tempted or be encouraged by unethical SEO companies to use SEO techniques that are considered ‘black hat’. These dishonest techniques are called: keyword stuffing, invisible text, tiny text, misleading land pages, link farms, etc.
Avoid these or eventually you will pay the price by having search engines ban your site from their indexes. Better to use tried and true methods that are honest and do not attempt to deceive. Build a quality site with quality information about your services or products that visitors can use. Be informative and helpful, give visitors and search engines a reason to explore your site.
Tip # 4 Proofread and Test – then do it again.
Something as simple as a typo in a URL on your page, broken links to pages that no longer exist, etc can hurt your page ranking. Proofread for spelling errors and double check that all of your pages load properly and every link works.
Tip # 5 Submit your Site!
Amazingly this step is often overlooked or the site owner just does not know how to accomplish it. You can build a great site, but the search engines will not come unless you submit your site URL to their index. Each search engine has an 'submit your site' page. You should also try to get listed in local directories or on partner websites. Quality reciprocal links will improve your site ranking.
Final Thoughts
These are all basic SEO techniques I use daily to achieve natural search engine ranking results for my clients. Of course there are services offered by search engine companies that you can use for a fee to market your site with Paid Submissions, Ad Words and pay per click programs.
The techniques I have described above are all for free search engine submissions but should also be applied prior to implementing any paid submission marketing campaign.
Some of these tips require basic HTML skills and design software. If you need help implementing these tips on your site, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
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posted by Rhonda Behnken at 9:53 AM
1 Comments:
awesome tips...thanks for sharing..
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